Russian-born filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky's long-gestating feature DAU has been selected for the main competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival (2-13 September), where it will celebrate its world premiere and compete for the Golden Lion (see the news). The film marks Khrzhanovskiy's return to the Lido after his debut feature, 4, premiered in Venice in 2004.

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Inspired by the lives of Soviet physicists who developed the atomic bomb, DAU follows a Greek-born physicist living in the USSR from 1928 to 1968. Driven by a desire to understand the laws of the universe, Dau is gradually compelled to place his scientific genius in the service of the Soviet state, helping to create the deadliest weapon in history. Set largely within a secret research institute, everyday life is shaped by scientific dominance, power, surveillance and privilege. Increasingly stripped of his autonomy, Dau attempts to find freedom and happiness outside his marriage through an endless succession of affairs, ultimately losing both himself and his ability to love. Spanning four transformative decades, the film is described as both an intimate portrait of one man and a sweeping fresco of a society shaped by violence and ideology. As the official synopsis notes: “A saga about the search for happiness, the price of freedom, and the countless everyday compromises that quietly shape both a human destiny and the course of history.”

The cast is led by internationally acclaimed Greek-Russian conductor, musician and actor Teodor Currentzis as the main character, alongside Radmila Shchegoleva, Anatoly Vasiliev, Vladimir Azhippo, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Dmitry Cheglakov, Demyan Kudryavtsev, Maria Nafpliotou, Carlo Rovelli, Ekaterina Andreeva, James Fallon, Victoriia Skytska, Peter Sellars and others. The film also features appearances by artists Carsten Höller, Marina Abramović and Romeo Castellucci.

Written and directed by Khrzhanovskiy, DAU represents the culmination of more than two decades of work, bringing together footage shot between 2008 and 2011 with newly filmed material completed in 2024. According to the director, the project evolved over time into "a single, unified work" shaped by the passage of time itself. Divided into three distinct visual chapters, the film employs different cinematographers, production designers and costume designers to create separate aesthetic worlds reflecting successive periods in Dau's life, blending documentary, dream, historical memory and fiction into a single cinematic language.

Khrzhanovskiy’s debut feature film, 4, world-premiered in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori and later won the Tiger Award at the IFFR, followed by numerous other international awards. In 2006, he began work on the film DAU, which evolved into a multidisciplinary project, developed over more than two decades. Two films from the project, DAU. Natasha and DAU. Degeneration, were selected for the Official Selection of the 2020 Berlinale, with the former receiving the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for Jürgen Jürges’ cinematography.

Behind the camera, Khrzhanovskiy collaborated with screenwriters Susanne Marian, Vladimir Sorokin and Ilia Permiakov. Cinematography is by Jürgen Jürges, Manuel Alberto Claro and Lol Crawley, while editing is by Ilia Permiakov and Rob Myers. Production design is handled by Denis Shibanov, Olga Gurevich and Boris Shapovalov.

DAU is produced by Ilya Khrzhanovsky for Germany's Phenomen Berlin, alonside Philippe Bober for Essential Films and Leonid Lebedev, France's Parisienne de Production and Arte France Cinéma, Sweden's Plattform Produktion, together with Westdeutscher Rundfunk and IP Filmworks. The project received support from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Eurimages and the Swedish Film Institute.